Brucetown Factory Records

1512 WFCHS

Finding aid created by Archives Staff 08/2001. Last revised 10/17.

ACCESS RESTRICTIONS: Collection is open to all researchers. 

USE RESTRICTIONS: Restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of items in this collection. Consult a member of the archives staff for information concerning these restrictions. The user assumes all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants of copyright.

EXTENT:  0.75 linear feet

DATE: 1836-1916

SCOPE AND CONTENT: This collection contains the records of the Brucetown Factory Woolen Mill including daybooks, ledgers and also property of William Jobe, one of the owners of the factory.

BIOGRAPHICAL/HISTORICAL: The Brucetown Factory Woolen Mill was also known as Jobe Woolen Mill, Pine Grove Woolen Factory, Brucetown Factory Woolen Mill, Holmes Mill, and the Clearbrook Woolen Mill. It was an urban factory in Clear Brook, VA that had been moved from Brucetown, VA as a result of two fires in 1895 and 1896. It had been a rural woolen mill in Brucetown since the 1770s, making it the oldest woolen mill in Frederick County, VA. Brucetown Woolen Mill is important because it survived three power system changes: vertical water wheel, turbine, and electric.

William Jolliffe owned the site in 1769. In 1771, Henry McCabe, John Hite Jr., William Gibbs, and James Kirk built a water mill, which they called the Pine Grove Woolen Factory. Joel Ward bought the mill in 1810. His daughter Nancy and Christian Holmes in partnership with Daniel Clemmens ran the mill in the 1830s and called it Holmes Mill. John M. Coyle purchased Pine Grove Factory in 1836 and sold it in 1848 to William Jobe. The mill burned in a fire and was relocated to Clearbrook, VA. Due to the long years of the Depression, the mill went into receivership in 1938. In April of 1939, the mill was auctioned to William H. Lawrence Jr. Lawrence opened the mill under the name of Clearbrook Woolen Company.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Johnston, Wilbur S. Weaving a Common Thread (Winchester, VA: Winchester-Frederick County Historical Society, 1984, 1990), pp. 40-43.

CITE AS: Brucetown Factory Records, 1512 WFCHS, Stewart Bell Jr. Archives, Handley Regional Library, Winchester, VA, USA.

ACQUISITION INFORMATION: Acquired as a gift.

ORGANIZATION:

BOX 1

Day Book, 1836 – 1839, 1 item, 165 pages, manuscript

Day Book, 1848 – 1853, 1 item, 306 pages, manuscript

BOX 2

Day Book, 1854 – 1858, 1 item, unnumbered pages, manuscript

Ledger, indexed 1848 – 1855, 1 item, 194 pages, manuscript

BOX 3

Jobe, William & Co. Records, 1861-1872, 1 item, unnumbered pages, manuscript

Jobe, William & Co. Cash Book, 1848-1858, 1 item, unnumbered pages, manuscript

Jobe, William Day Book, 1854-1886, 1 item, unnumbered pages, manuscript

Jobe, William Day Book, 1861-1878, 1 item, unnumbered pages, manuscript

The Masonic Manual,” 1854, property of William Jobe, Brucetown, Frederick County, VA, 1 item, 310 pages, printed

“Soil Survey of Frederick County, VA,” by J.B.R. Dickey & W.B. Cobb, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, 1916, with fold out map attached, 1 item, 48 pages, printed

(OVERSIZED) MAPCASE 5, DRAWER 7

Tax Assessor’s List of Colored Land Owners, Stonewall District Frederick County, 1915, 5 pages, manuscript on printed form